Gods and Magnolias
by effie's head
Summary: How did the Bei Fong family's nonexistent daughter become the most legendary competitor in the history of Earth Rumble? [ all trendy drabbles completed! ]
1. signs

_A/N: I have a confession... I used to hate Toph, and I kind of wanted her to die. I know, it's horrible! But there's just something about the girl __that makes you _have_ to love __her. So, I suppose this fic is my way of saying, "I guess you're not that bad."  
_

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**Gods and Magnolias**

**_-:- signs -:-  
_**

No word, written or spoken, announced the date of Earth Rumble, but the signs were clear to those who needed to know.

When the old men who spent languorous spring afternoons outside the cantina traded their feverish debate for murmured speculation; when even the laziest students in Master Yu's class embraced their Earthbending with an unfounded zeal; when careless groundskeepers, mistaking young Miss Bei Fong's preoccupation with the strings of her harp for inattention, unaware of the sharpness of her hearing, placed their bets, it meant that very soon Xin Fu's underground stadium would be choked with the feral cry of hundreds of action-hungry fans.


	2. earth rumble iii

**Gods and Magnolias**

**_-:- earth rumble iii -:-  
_**

She doesn't exist, so she isn't worried about a disguise. The only people who might recognize her are the guards and gardeners her parents hire, but really who would notice her in a crowd of this size? Anyway, she reasons, the only way to be certain that the disguise she picked wasn't something that actually made her conspicuous was to ask someone, and that absolutely was not an option. So far, no one has questioned her, as if a nine-year-old in formal robes walking alone to a fighting tournament is entirely commonplace. To be safe, she becomes one of them, walks among them, lets the crowd move her along like the little waves in the pond do for the few minutes that she is able to float and listen to the murmur of the water before her panicking parents send someone to fish her out.

Even before she reaches the entrance she can feel the immensity of the stadium; her stomach hollows as her feet glide over a massive crater that has opened underneath the earth. Despite herself, her breath catches in her throat. There are so many people down there! Their excited chatter buzzes in her heels like ants in their tunnels.

Once inside she finds a lonely wall and slumps against it, waiting for her head to stop reeling. Never in her life has she been in the company of so many hundreds of people. She knows the footsteps of her parents, of the watchmen, of her teacher, of the housekeepers and cooks, all of these individual and separate and safe. But the crowd is different, it's everywhere, saturating her senses like someone shaking her violently, shaking her _awake_. The earth is under her feet, above her head, engulfing her in its clay embrace, and whispering to her the song of the world that dances outside the tall stone walls of home.

Slowly, slowly, the fog in her head clears and she is able to make sense of the damp-smelling coliseum and the flood of people.

That year no one notices the girl squeezed between a rock wall and a wailing group of teenagers in the highest row of the arena, bare feet hidden under the long hem of her dress, toes boring a wedge into the stone bench, and wondering if the force shaking her core is coming from within her or from the stage.


	3. perspective

**Gods and Magnolias**

**_-:- perspective -:-  
_**

For every child there is that moment in which the softness of innocence leaps abruptly into jagged adult perspective. Although he lacks the words for this experience, the child knows that something has changed. For an instant he is able to see the world with a clarity that he is still years away from understanding. He may sense it when he sees his parents cry; _They are vulnerable and weak, like me._ Or, he may sense it while half-listening to grown-ups discussing battles if far away lands; _This world is dangerous._

She sensed it as she urged her feet to take her aboveground, as the cheering of the crowd and pounding of the fight echoed in her mind; _I don't want to go home._ But she had to return before anyone realized she was missing. Safe in bed, safe in the house, safe inside the walled gardens.

Safely suffocating.


	4. earth rumble iv

**Gods and Magnolias**

**_-:- earth rumble iv -:-  
_**

Like the bellow of some raging beast, the roar of the crowd makes the walls shudder as the Champion raises his arms in triumph. His fat fingers claw at the air, seducing howls of adoration from raw throats. They hurl their wordless worship at him; tonight he is a god.

Xin Fu, belt and money bag in hand, wants to know if anyone will challenge the victor—a joke told every year to reassure the Champion of his merit. Who would dare fight him, and flirt with utter humiliation?

A cry, brazen and bold, shrills defiance. _I will!_

From across the arena she is little more than a grain of white rice, a fleck of spit clinging to the lips of a deity, tromping down stairs too wide for her short legs. The wild cheers give way to curious whispers. _Who is this?_ And as she approaches the stage, crossing the gap on a bridge of earth that materializes under her feet, they wonder—_A child?_

She stands before Xin Fu, unaffected by the foul leer, the cold eyes that crawl over her face. He announces, _She is blind!_ The air sizzles with laughter: Xin Fu's, the crowd's, the Champion's. Unfazed, the child crouches into stance and roots herself to the stage. Amused peals whistle out of the rumble of hysteria, and they watch with hungry eyes as the Champion rolls his meaty shoulders, cracks his knuckles, puts on his drowsy grin, and opens his mouth to taunt.

Before the insult can escape his lips, the Champion is swallowed by the ground. Stillness ebbs over the crowd as hundreds of eyes follow the fissure that crinkles across the stage like a lightning bolt tethered to the earth. With a sound like pebbles falling from the sky, quiet in comparison to the thunderous booms of the Champion's winning match, the fissure stretches to the other end of the stage and, having split the field in two, comes to a halt. Onlookers scramble from their seats as the Champion is violently released from his underground tomb and hurled from the side of the platform into their midst. Dazed, he crashes headlong into the stone benches, crumbling them.

In the satisfying silence that follows, the child relaxes her stance and grins.

Like the bellow of some raging beast, the roar of the crowd makes the walls shudder as the Champion raises her arms in triumph. She lifts the heavy belt, bigger than she is, over her head, enticing more applause from the astounded spectators. They hurl their wordless worship at her; tonight she is a god.


	5. fine print

**Gods and Magnolias**

**_-:- fine print -:-  
_**

Xin Fu, however impetuous and juvenile his tendencies, had just the right combination of intelligence, drive, and greed to make him an ideal businessman. The expenses incurred during the months he spent scouring the Earth Kingdom for its most adroit benders—those who hadn't already been recruited by the army—would be recouped tenfold by the end of Earth Rumble. He took care of his investments, and he only invested in the best.

How fortunate for him that what, by next year, would prove to be his most profitable asset practically waltzed into his arms in the form of the Bei Fong family's nonexistent daughter.

This fact, of course, was to remain a confidential matter between the two of them, a stipulation the girl insisted upon as they discussed her contract. He had to muster humility when they began to determine the ten-year-old's payment, bouncing generous figures back and forth. He searched her face for signs of the faltering uncertainty of a child, but her cloudy gaze and attentive posture, small hands folded neatly on the table, showed nothing but maturity and poise. She listened carefully, accentuating curt nods with small affirmative noises, _Mm-hmm, okay, right._

He brought her to his woman who, with pins between her teeth, chided, _Stay still, sugar,_ as she measured the girl and draped fabric over her fidgeting shoulders. For a moment forgetting her company, the seamstress assured the child that the outfit she would create would be just as pretty as the one she had on. The girl's grumbled reply: _I _hate_ wearing this dress._

Two months and three consultations later, they had a costume ready for her, and a name.


	6. earth rumble v

**Gods and Magnolias**

**_-:- earth rumble v -:-  
_**

Her new uniform, so unlike the silky robes and slippers she wears at home, feels golden against her skin. The material is loose and rugged, perfect for Earthbending. Cuffs adorn her ankles and wrists, steady weights to keep her balanced. A headband with fuzzy puffs that she can only assume are stylish keep her cumbersome locks out of the way. The buttons and buckles take some work—she'd rather go naked than ask for help getting dressed—but once everything is fastened and in place, she feels powerful. Fearless. Dominant. She feels like the Blind Bandit—she _becomes_ the Blind Bandit.

_The Blind Bandit._

The name is Xin Fu's creation, and the costume is his seamstress's, but it is she who breathes life into them. It is she who with barely a flick of her wrist pulverizes opponent after opponent, topples grown men like toys, whose unashamed and biting wit flings their big talk back into their dopey faces, she whom the crowd idolizes.

She knows that they see her and expect an easy fight. _Surely, _the opponent reasons, _I am stronger than this little girl, faster, smarter. I've been Earthbending longer than she's been alive! Where those fools have failed I will conquer. _But she sneaks up on them, like a thief shrouded in darkness. She robs them of their ego, of their dignity, of their fortitude—and their prize money.

And not a single one can understand. Of all the hundreds of adrenaline-drunk and swirling minds in the arena, only hers can grasp the truth, the secret to her ascendancy—she may be blind, but she sees _everything_.

By the end of the tournament her competition, the careening audience, and any remnants of the Bei Fong family's biddable, imaginary daughter have been swallowed by the contagious coercion of the Blind Bandit.


	7. secret

**Gods and Magnolias**

**_-:- secret -:-  
_**

When she challenged the Champion a year ago, her goal was not money or fame. At the time her only goal was to win. Sitting in the stadium, hands grasping her seat, toes curled around the edge of the bench in front of her, she found that she could predict the fighters' moves and fashion a retaliation before their feet even touched the ground. In that instant the tournament lost its aura of wild brutality that had attracted and enamored her. It was a strategy game, she realized—you just had to know how to play. _I could do that_, she thought. And she did.

The money she concealed in the only place she was certain no one but herself would uncover—deep underground, nestled among the roots of the big magnolia in the corner of the garden. The heavy sack she could deal with late at night before she crept back to her bedroom. But what she could not hide, what could not be buried and forgotten was the deranged ovation, the undulating cry of _Bandit! Bandit! Bandit!_

They cried out for _her_.

She wished she could bottle the thrill of the fight, the shivers that ran through her when the crowd screamed, and hang them from the branches of the magnolia tree, high up where everyone could see them, but no one could take them away.


	8. earth rumble vi

**Gods and Magnolias**

**_-:- earth rumble vi -:-_****_  
_**

Xin Fu has big plans for Earth Rumble VI. He's got the regular gags—good old Fire Nation Man, the boggling Big Bad Hippo. He's collected a new group of rookies—she can call them "rookies" because when three years constitute a quarter of your life it counts as tenure. They have potential, but lack the experience of masters, which is fine because Xin Fu hired them as fodder. The Boulder, who owes his entire career to Xin Fu's competition and promotion, plays the part of the dethroned Champion, seeking revenge.

In her small chamber she paces as the Boulder blows through the rookies as easily as she will blow through him, and the crowd's fervor is a tickle on the soles of her feet and a low hum in the air. She shakes with impatience, but Xin Fu has promised her turn. _By defeating one, you defeat them all_, he assured. He's counting on this showdown between the two champions. He knows that she will win, and she knows it, too. The Boulder might even know it as he demolishes his opponents. The only way to beat the Blind Bandit is to kill her.

Like a good thief, she destroys the Boulder with only two moves, unadorned, lucid, almost imperceptible. This is the allure, the beauty of the Blind Bandit, she thinks as the horde of fans sing their praise and Xin Fu makes his offer. _No one dares to face her?_ She smiles, content in the knowledge that no one will, no one ever has.

A voice, blithe, unaware of the reverential stillness it shatters, chimes, _I will!_

The phantom of a memory skims the surface of her mind: a fleck of spit on the lips of a deity, a fight, a winner. But she doesn't have time to dwell on that now, and the thought flees just as quickly as it appeared.

The boy is a small, fragile, clumsy thing, and she, the elation of victory still sweet on her tongue, taunts him. He absorbs her mocking and repays her with a gentle request: _I want to talk._ Talk! The people groan their annoyance; they don't want a conference, they want to watch the Blind Bandit devour the kid. But they'll have to be patient, they'll have to wait just as she waits on him. Let him talk away. She furnishes him with no response and, mistaking her concentration for attentiveness, he takes a step forward.

She lunges for him with a a wave of rock that will knock him flat on his face. He evades her attack. She prepares to throw another—but the boy has vanished! She can't feel him anywhere. For a terrifying instant, the forbidden thought flashes through her mind, catches her breath: _I'm blind! _

No. Relief floods her when she feels his bare toes scrape the ground. Again she attacks, and again he disappears. He's more of a pest than an opponent! Angered and annoyed, she fails to think the game through, to wait for his inevitable misstep and use it as momentum and inspiration, doesn't wonder what makes him coast over the stage, and this is her mistake.

One dumb rookie move is all it takes. The instant she can sense him she hurls a slab of stone with as much power as she can muster. She hears it slice the air; there's no way he can evade this one. But instead of the resonance of stone hitting flesh, a sound she's never before heard in Xin Fu's dank, sunken stadium fills her ears: the rush of wind.

An instant later she's flying.

She doesn't know what kind of trick it was, but it certainly wasn't Earthbending. _He cheated_, she wants to scream, but already the crowd is lauding the new Champion. How easily they've forgotten her! How eager they are to celebrate this fraud, this nobody, this-

The word rings in her head, at first quiet and tentative. But with each stinging cheer, each step she makes toward the solitude of her chamber, each plea the shrimp has the nerve to make, one word shrieks its senseless rage in her ears.

_Murderer!_


	9. encore

**Gods and Magnolias**

**_-:- encore -:-  
_**

After Earth Rumble, she buried the last pouch of gold coins. It was flimsy beside the others hidden there years before, their worn fabric stretched tight and overflowing; the majority of her payment had gone to the new Champion. She covered the hole, and sat quietly upon the Blind Bandit's grave until the birds began their dawn fanfare, high in the magnolia's fragrant branches.

The next day she absorbed herself in the mundane and menial. Dressing herself in soft robes, her parents' dribbling chitchat at breakfast, reciting poetry for Mommy, beginner's lessons with Master Yu. Yesterday she had laughed to herself as Master Yu, in his nasally voice, guided her in breathing exercises she could do in her sleep. Now the joke was on her.

How stupid to think it would last forever, to think she'd found her secret salvation. One mistake—one dumb mistake—and her fantasies and hopes were rotting away underground with leaves, worms, and roots. _And that's where they'll stay_, she told herself.

But _he _had other plans.

She wasn't one to put faith in the workings of destiny, the mysteries of fate, but even she couldn't deny the strange power caught in the wake of those birdlike footsteps, that smiling voice that rambled on about swamps and kings. Was it something unique to the Avatar, or some higher force at work? She didn't know, but she couldn't ignore it. Part of her never doubted that she would help him; the other part wasn't quite ready to forgive.

He needed a teacher. More precisely, he needed her. But what could she do? Maybe the Blind Bandit had possessed the power to escape her parents' coddling embrace, but the Blind Bandit was gone now. That game had ended. The frenzy and melodrama and passion, so foreign to the somnolent lifestyle that confined her, were memories that she kept greedily locked away with dreams of battling gods and crying magnolias.

She thought she'd never again feel that reverent hollowing of her chest as she stepped down into Xin Fu's stadium, and she was right. As she tramped over the rough stone, her father's hand jealously shielding her own, it was impotence and anger that carved a pit inside her. She droned out their pleas with the sounds of her own footsteps, but what she could not silence was her father's ardent defense, _She cannot help you!_

Two years ago, it was a spark of defiance and perception that gave life to the Blind Bandit, and it was that same spark that would ressurect her now.

Her voice, quietly determined, unmasked and undaunted; her voice filled the the tunnel, _I can. _As she slipped her hand from her father's grasp, she could sense his astonishment. She wondered if she ought to warn him, but what mere words could do the Blind Bandit justice? She would let him see, and that would be her confession.

Cottony pajamas replaced her golden fighter's uniform. Her audience was tiny and skeptic. Her opponents were vengeful. So was she.

It was her finest performance.

The night Toph Bei Fong was kidnapped, the Blind Bandit leaped unseen from her bedroom window, softened the earth to ease her landing, and slipped into the fresh night.

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_A/N: ...The end. Thanks so much to everyone who made it this far! Toph __definitely __rawks (pardon the pun) and I have seen the error of my ways._


End file.
